Friday, August 15, 2008

Back in June I reported that Ryan Levin (C'98, Without a Net, Theater Arts, Penn Players) and Nye Warburton (C '97, Without a Net) had co-created a new animated Comedy Central web series for Benny: Escaped Convict.

Now I've got news that their animated Benny character just roasted Bob Saget at his recent Friars' Roast! Check out the clip above for this funny, not-safe-for-work clip!

Between the both of them, Ryan and Nye have worked on some pretty big movies and TV shows.

Click here to find out what projects they have done and how they both decided to work together!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

If you're looking for some entertainment while you're all lounging on the beaches this summer, check out The Enemy Within, a book now in paperback from one of our talented alumni authors, Noel Hynd (C'70) .

FYI, Noel is the author of 18(!) published works, mostly espionage and suspense thrillers. He currently has a long term contract with Zondervan/HarperCollins.

It is early summer of 2009, an uneasy time in the American capital. Washington is tense over a showdown between the United States and the new ruler of Libya.

Laura Chapman is a U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to the White House. She is quirky, solitary, and frequently unorthodox. She is sexy and fit, adept with a pistol as well as with a hundred-pound Everlast bag. But she is also a brilliant intelligence analyst. That’s why she has been assigned to the Presidential Protection Detail for the past eleven years.

The CIA assigns Laura to a case that borders on the unthinkable: an assassination plot against the new president. Shockingly, the trigger man will be a member of the United States Secret Service.

Since the CIA knows that the assassin is male, Laura is not a suspect. The odds are heavily against her locating an alleged assassin within the Service, and even more heavily against her surviving the assignment.

Beyond that, problems abound: First, because of her age and gender, members of the Service as well as agents in the CIA and FBI are waiting for her to fail. Second, Laura’s personal life is in disarray, and her secret drinking is about to get out of hand. Third, the hit is scheduled to take place on July 4, 2009, in the Oval Office. Less than two weeks from now.

As her investigation proceeds, Laura cannot shake the suspicion that there are things she has not been told, that she is being set up. . . . In her increasingly frequent moments of paranoia, she wonders: Am I going to be the new Lee Harvey Oswald?

Look out for his next book, the first in a series, called Conspiracy in Kiev which will be published in October of 2008.

Like many of our successful alumni, there's a common thread to their success. And that thread is perseverance...

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

A month ago, Joe shot a pilot for ABC (produced by NBC) called Five Year Plan, that he and his writing partner Joe Wiseman created and exec produced together. It stars Steve Howey, Will Sasso, Brooke D'orsay, Lee Thompson Young, Joy Osmanski and Steve Rosen.

Per Joe,

“The basic idea is we introduce this young group of people, we learn what their respective five year plans are, and then we watch them as they try to make those dreams come true. The pilot was directed by Gail Mancuso. We're all done editing itnow and have gotten a lot of good feedback so far (my mother Phyllis Port (C'60) claims, "It's a winner!"). We should know pretty soon whether or not it will be picked up to series.”

Before this, Joe worked on The Office, Just Shoot Me and per Joe, “many shows that you've never heard of.”

Joe’s not the only Hollywood Penn writer in his family. His brother Moses Port (C’91) and writing partner David Guarascio (C'91) executive produced last year's CW show Aliens in America and are currently developing projects for Sony.

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Monday, August 11, 2008

Here’s another alum with not your typical profession whose talents have appeared in TV and film!

Steve Herbst (C’67, Glee Club) has these impressive credits under his belt:

An International Grand Champion Whistler (2002)

The only man ever named International Whistling Entertainer Of The Year 3X (2003, 2004, 2005)

A member of the International Whistlers Hall of Fame (inducted in 2007). Note Bing Crosby is also a member.

Steve tells me that while at Penn, he was a 4-year member and Bass Section leader of the Glee Club and a frequent baritone soloist. He was also a "closet whistler" rehearsing Motown as well as Beethoven, Mozart, Lizst selections in his dorm rooms in Provost and Morgan towers.

Steve shares a fond memory he had with the late Bruce Montgomery:

"Bruce Montgomery had the Glee Club do two numbers which called for flutes or recorders but where he whistled those parts personally. One night, he came up dry and couldn't get his whistle going. After that concert, I told him, "I could do that for you." And he handed the whistling over to me. From then on, I did all the whistling. On one special occasion, I got to whistle with the Glee Club for Japanese Emperor Hirohito's brother, Prince Mikassa and his princess at the William S. Payley House on the Mainline. So my public concert whistling career started at Penn."

This month Steve will be traveling to Tokyo and Osaka to compete in this year's International Whistling Convention and Competition plus 3 concerts.

Whistling concerts on the Penn Campus, at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in nightclubs and theaters from coast-to-coast including Birdland, The Cotton Club, and the Irridium Jazz Club here in New York City

Being featured in and narrated an award-winning feature-length documentary on whistling -- "Pucker-Up -- The Fine Art of Whistling,"

Appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS Morning Show plus many other TV and radio stations, newspapers, and magazines around the world.

TV appearances including commercials and his whistling has been used by the "Malcolm In The Middle" sitcom

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